The Cat in the Hat!

We kicked off our Dr. Seuss theme by making Cat in the Hat headbands!

I created a hat shape out of white paper and had them add the red stripes with glue sticks. I then stapled it to a 2 inch white strip of paper to create a headband. After over 12 years of doing this, I think I finally have found the hat that works. (I have tried many different ways, none that worked well. Who knew simple is best?)  I then added a black nose and whiskers with a face-paint crayon and a red paper bow.

What I loved was that some of the 3's wanted to wear them all morning.

At the easel we had red and white paint with small brushes.

I froze lots of different colored fish (using a fish ice tray from Ikea) for the sensory table (for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish).

I made green playdough to mimic green eggs. 

I am so glad I decided to stretch this out for two weeks, because we are having a lot of fun with it!

Wednesday will be Wacky Wednesday!!!

This post is linked up with:

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss Linky Party

Everyday Math Play!

Deborah from Teach Preschool wrote a wonderful post on her website called Everyday Math In Preschool. It got me to thinking about how we incorporate math into our day in a variety of ways.

SORTING
These are the obvious sorting activities, but there are so many others that just seem to happen naturally throughout our morning. Putting things away in proper bins, sorting what goes into the trash and what goes back into the bag at snack time, sorting the colored markers when putting them away.

COOKING AND MEASURING

So much math is being learned while we do even the simplest cooking activities! How many? What shape? How full? How much?

LARGE MOTOR GAMES

Yes, even in the gym and outdoors we are counting and identifying! Hopscotch, tossing beanbags until the bucket is full, counting how many spins a child takes on the spinner, counting while rocking on the rocky boat, assembling the large waffle blocks....

ART PROJECTS

SIZE AND MEASUREMENT

One of my favorite moments last year was when my boy-heavy 3's class connected pieces that almost reached across the classroom. They used rulers to figure out how long it was, and then they got down on their backs so we could see how many children were as long as the pieces. What a wonderful learning moment!

SHAPES

We learn about and draw shapes in many ways. In our journals with stickers, puzzles, overhead projector, cookie cutters at the play dough table, etc. While we do have a "shape of the month", I feel the same about it as I do "letter of the week". Why devote one specific time for each one? We are exposed to all of them each day!

COUNTING

We count all morning long, in so many ways. But here are some activities we have done recently:

We also read many books that help with counting and sorting, as well as fingerplays and songs! 

This post is linked up with:

Pipettes and Coffee Filters

I love using coffee filters for so many activities, especially with pipettes. Usually I first have them put the paint on the coffee filters and work with them after they are dry. This time I decided to staple the coffee filters to black paper ahead of time.

I stapled them loosely so they would be a bit wrinkled and puffy. I wanted a textured effect.

Some of the preschoolers first drew on the black paper around the coffee filter with white crayons. I love to use different mediums in one activity!

We mostly used watercolors, but I also thinned some shimmer paint to highlight the textures.

Some of these might take awhile to dry, so it's a good thing they have the weekend for that!

This post is linked up with:

Exploring Textures: Shaving Cream with the 2's

Today we squirted shaving cream and a bit of green liquid watercolors directly on the table with the 2's class.

At first we just used brayers. They loved how the rollers slipped across the cream! "I'm making roads!"

Then, I decided to add some other utensils. That caught the attention of a couple of my guys who normally don't care to get their hands messy.

One little boy in particular was fascinated with the springy wire whisk. 

He spent a great deal of time pushing the whisk onto the table, through the shaving cream, and then allowing it to spring off the table. Over and over again, he'd carefully watch how this utensil would push and pull. Others dragged combs and plastic paint scrapers through the shaving cream, delighted with the tracks they were making.

And we got a nice clean table out of it, too! :-)

Cooking With 3's: Spiders and Cream Cheese Grahams

This time of year I like to add more cooking to our week. Thank goodness for parent volunteers - they are such a huge help with this! The first step we work on is learning to spread soft foods. I got this recipe for "spiders" from a great website called Kids' Cooking Activities. I highly encourage everyone with children to check this out!

After spreading cream cheese on crackers, the 3's counted out 3 pretzel sticks and broke them in half to make 6 spider legs.

Then the legs were placed on either side of the cracker. (Well, some of the spiders had six legs that were more on one side than the other.)

They then topped it with another cracker, added a bit more cream cheese, and then 2 chocolate chips for the eyes. (The recipe calls for raisins, but I forgot to purchase them before class and we happened to have some chocolate chips in the refrigerator.)

(Note: the only reason the cream cheese is tinted pink is because it was leftover from a previous activity.)

Today we continued working on our spreading skills by making cream cheese graham cracker squares. I found the recipe at parenting.com.

Each preschooler put one graham cracker square on his plate.

In a small cup, they mixed together a spoonful of softened cream cheese and a spoonful of strawberry jam.

They worked on their mixing skills by stirring the 2 ingredients until well blended.

The cream cheese mixture was then spread on the graham cracker square. Yum!

This post is linked up with: